10 Minutes On The Moon

[upahill]

Having been stuck with a tiny frac imaging rig for a long time I finally have a chance to do some visual observing and the evening moon was my target during a break in the clouds.

I set up my new to me LX10 8" and headed straight for the only visible object. The last time I viewed the moon it was late at night, full moon, and so bright that without filters I found it quite uncomfortable - but the partial moon was much more pleasant. It took a while to get used to the focusing on the LX10 and I feel it could benefit from some fine focus control so between that and the atmosphere I was getting a few moments at a time with a very rich and clear view.

I was amazed at the level of detail I could discern though, this 8" is superior in my opinion to the 11" DIY dob I have. The shadows around the craters gave the view in the 20mm EP a real sense of depth and moving to the 9mm, whilst almost impossible to get good focus, really made me feel like I was flying over.

Spent a bit of time focusing on the Mare Crisium, Picard, Peirce and Swift were very clear and prompted me to look up their names later.

Managed to get the Mrs out who was as impressed as myself - the LX10 is a much easier scope to view with than the dob for her - although I could do with getting it a little higher myself. I dont have any cameras that would work with this scope so resorted to taking an iPhone pic through the 9mm (potato quality, does the view no justice)

The clouds rolled in and stopped play for the next few days I suspect but cant wait to visit again.

[banjaxed]

I agree, the waxing crescent moon was visible for about 20 minutes last night and I was amazed by the clarity and detail without being temporarily blinded.

[Stu]

Nice to get out there, we managed some reasonable views of the crescent Moon too last night. There were some lovely tiny 'beads' hanging out in the darkness off one of the ends of the terminator, very nice at around x120 in the Mewlon.

[kirkster501]

Great stuff. And to think people moan when the moon is up..... It’s a fabulous object to observe and image.

Edited June 7, 2019 by kirkster501